Anybody tried Plated?

I've noticed that Jewel is pushing Plated now. Has anybody here tried this.? I believe that this was first promoted on Shark Tank, and has really taken off since they got involved. I would never buy it because it is $8 to fix your own dinner. I can fix dinner for myself a lot cheaper. I like to cook though, and a lot of people don't.

I haven't. I have no interest for pretty much the same reasons you shared.

I was amused there was a marketing professional standing at the Plated display presumably to engage in conversations with shoppers. Except she was busy reading all those important messages on her phone. She would have accomplished her job, if she wasn't so distracted.

At my cookbook club, there is a woman who purchases eight dinner servings per week from Blue Apron. She loves the variety and not having to plan and shop for dinner.

A friend who inherited a ready-to-prepare meal advised he learned a few new culinary tricks.

Why does she belong to a cookbook club if she orders 8 Blue Apron meals a week?. When I mentioned over on mashupmom last summer about how much I love Henry's mesclun mix at the farmer's market, somebody replied that it was too much trouble to fix a salad. She would much rather hit the $2.99 Saturday salad bar at Jewel. The salad bar at the Jewel that is the closest to me is mediocre at best.

They are all very similar, I think the accompanying instructions with Hello Fresh are a little better written and easier to follow than the others. Most of the recipes are pretty straight forward, but there are some good techniques and ideas that can be picked up.

The some of the things to like about any of them are the following: 1) Convenience of not having to shop and/or plan. 2) Variety of tastes that wouldn't necessarily be in my normal repertoire. 3) portion controlled 4) the majority of the recipes took less than 30 mins to prepare.

In terms of the cost $8-10/portion is not extreme. Ordering in pretty much anything is going to cost more. Per portion cost may be slightly less if doing it on your own, but you lose not just the convenience, but the possibility of waste as well. Since each recipe comes with the requested spices, vinegar's, produce, pasta, etc., there is not a percentage of a purchased jar/bottle/package left to spoil, stale, or whatever if not used again.

I cook and I find most of the food enjoyable and tasty. A friend of mine who was not much of a cook before hand, was able to perform the steps and come up with a fairly accurate rendition of the attempted dish. I had a few weeks worth of them sent to my college aged kids and they liked them, though because the smallest portion is for 2 people, they weren't overly enamored with the same meal the next day for lunch or dinner. I heard similarly from single friends.

I think they are a great tool/resource for people who don't cook, but want to try and learn on their own. The step by step instructions make it fairly easy. Even the more "difficult" recipes can be accomplished by a novice. The only drawback is that for a non-cook, some of the techniques or queues that a cook would find second nature are not as obvious or explained as well. So and instruction like "cook for 3-5 minutes", means the possibility of over or under-cooked exists, or cooking rice in a pot and not knowing to add more water if necessary, or the difference between a simmer and a boil can lead to burned/crunchy rice. I think a major improvement for most of them would be to try and foresee some of these issues and offer the visual clues necessary. Maybe more detailed instructions for the "novices"

Hi- I was in Jewel on Saturday, and I noticed that they had all of their plated dinner kits on sale for B1G1F. The sale might only run through tomorrow though. I am not sure. I looked at the selection, and they had two different dinners to choose from, and I know the salmon dinner package was $16.95, which was supposed to feed two people. That means you get four meals for $16.95, which is not so bad.

I have been doing subscriptions meals for the past couple years. I started with blue Apron for two weeks then tried plated for two weeks. I preferred plated. I continued plated for about six months. They were similar services but I thought the selection and taste of plated were better than blue apron.

I really enjoyed plated but decided I wanted to have more low carb options. Then I started Sun Basket about a year ago and have stuck with them. I believe the executive chef at Sun Basket was chef de cuisine at the Slanted Door in San Francisco. I feel that the meals from Sun Basket are more adventurous as well. They have a lot of asian influences and more spices. The meals are also more challenging since there is less photos of the prep and they leave salting to the discretion of the cook. Prices are around $20 per meal for two people they have upgrades for higher quality meats and fish. Most of the meal are better or equal to a meal that would cost 2 to 4 times as much at a restaurant. They usually take me between 20 and 40 minutes to make. Portions are appropriate. I also don't overindulge on bread and dessert which is good for my waist line. I love to go out to restaurants; but having 2 to 4 meals to make in my fridge that could be ready in the same time frame as going to a restaurant with such a savings is a no brainer to me. I echo what others have said about learning new techniques and using ingredients that I might not otherwise try. My daughter in San Francisco is a loyal Sun Basket customer as well. If you would like to check them out here is a link to their service with a $40 discount to new users. Sunbasket

Many of the Kroger's stores and affiliates are offering similar products for $14, $16, $18, and $20 for a meal for two. Personally, I have not tried them as I hind them very expensive for what they are and I have plenty of time to cook. They are NOT selling very well in Tucson as they have NO regional offerings. I am going to wait until they get marked down to half price and then try one to see if they are any good.

While it is nice to have the meals pre-prepped for cooking, I still have to use pots and pans and the like. Where is the great time savings. Also, I can get 1.5x the food if I head over to Sprouts and purchase the in-store prepared meals (x2) and all they need is to be microwaved.

What is troublesome about Kroger's new marketing campaigns is that MOST of them are test marketed in Cincinnati and other Midwestern cities and then rolled out to the regions without a concern as to whether it really wanted in the area. That is why you can buy fresh pretzels made on site at a Fry's store that borders on the Tohono O'Odham nation, the Yacqui Pueblo and two barrios but not buy a fresh tortilla.

I have seen a few Plated meals on sale for $6 at Jewel. I think the people that use these don't enjoy shopping and coming up with recipes every night, and they justify the expense by saying if they did not use these they would order take out and spend even more money.

One of the farmers that comes to the Evanston market has his Sister send out an email on Thursday evenings telling what Henry is bringing. In the email Terra sent today, she said that Henry is selling considerably less veggies at the Evanston market than he did in 2007, due to the fact that people aren't cooking as much, or they would rather pay for convenience than quality. A lot of people also come to the farmer's market to hang out with their friends, and while there they only purchase already prepared food.

I find the part I dislike most about nightly dinners is meal planning and shopping. I find these services remove those drudges. There is no going through cookbooks, writing out shopping list, driving to the market and shopping. Later you realize that you don't have a crucial ingredient. They remove all that for me. I usually do 3 or 4 meals a week. I still have 3 or 4 nights to eat out or make something really special.

They are also fun to cook. I have had guests over were I made one meal and they make the other. They found the cooking party to be a fun way to spend an evening over some wine.